BRENTWOOD — On a night filled with festivities and celebrations, Heritage left no doubt.
From the opening kickoff to the final whistle, the Brentwood school dominated visiting Terra Linda (2-1) in its homecoming game in what was a 56-0 blowout win.
Senior running back Mekhi Adanandus led the way for Heritage (3-1), rushing for 131 yards and three scores. Heritage ended Friday night’s game with a total of 211 rushing yards.
“All week long we talked about how we wanted to run the football,” said Heritage coach Dave Fogelstrom.
“I don’t care how many times we gotta hit the ax on the tree, but we’re gonna go after it over and over again until we find our rhythm running the football. I was really proud of our O-Line tonight. They did a great job.”
The Patriots’ nullified the usually high-flying Terra Nova offense as they forced two turnovers and totaled four sacks.
“It was the pass rush,” said Heritage defensive lineman Markus King. “We were just really strong on our rushes and we just made it happen.”
The Patriots set the tone early.
On the second play of the game, Adanandus scored the first of his three first-half touchdowns on a 58-yard sprint to the house.
“The O-Line blocked perfectly and gave me all the space I needed,” Adanandus said about the score. “I knew I could hit that and I scored.”
After a Terra Linda muffed punt on the next possession, Adanandus scored again on a eight-yard rush through the middle of the Trojan defensive line to put the home team up 14-0 nearly three minutes into the first quarter.
Later in the first, Heritage took a 21-point lead after running back Illias Muhammad broke more than a few tackles as he rushed into the end zone for a 15-yard score.
Quarterback Phillip Babbitt’s 33-yard strike to tight end Charlie Blaise gave Heritage a commanding 35-0 lead at the halftime break.
Heritage scored a touchdown on five of its seven offensive possessions in the first half. Its defense was stingy as Terra Linda mustered just 66 yards of total offense and crossed the fifty yard-line just once in six offensive possessions.
“We have a great group of defensive backs and linebackers right now,” Fogelstrom said. “They’re a really strong part of our team. We felt like if they were going to come out and throw the football that we were going to be able to respond.”
With the big lead, the game went into running clock in the second half.
But that didn’t stop Heritage from pouring it on.
In the fourth quarter, senior cornerback Ryder Polvorosa picked off a Terra Linda pass and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown. On the ensuing possession, sophomore Valencio Hughes recovered a fumble and ran it back 17 yards, making the score 56-0 and putting an exclamation point on the home team’s big win.
Adanandus extended his touchdown streak to four games and has seven total rushing scores on the year.
Since giving football a try two years ago, the 5-foot-5 senior said he is soaking up every moment this season.
“I only started to play my sophomore year and to be a starter my senior year, it’s just been great.”
Heritage will play their third East Bay Athletic League opponent next week when the Patriots travel to Livermore High.
Fogelstrom said the team’s mindset is in the right place going into next week’s matchup.
“Livermore is a really good team,” he said. “But our goal was to be 3-1 at this point after we dropped the first game. We’ve achieved that goal and now we’re going to face a really strong team.”